Then, you step out in front of a bus...
Submitted by Robert P. on Sat, 11/25/2006 - 7:21pm
Let's say you're self-employed, maybe running a small company like many of my friends. Maybe running a web-design company, or a you are a free-lance writer, or whatever. Things are going well, you're thinking of maybe expanding, maybe taking "that" vacation with your spouse, maybe being able to send the kids to college. Then, this happens.
Hundreds of actors, artists, musicians and writers in California are facing massive increases in their health insurance premiums, a situation that could face other consumers who don't have employer-sponsored health plans, advocates and lawmakers said.
Cigna Corp., which has sold insurance to members of the entertainment industry through their professional associations for 25 years, is raising premiums for actors and others by an average of 82%, with some hikes as high as 254%.
Under the Cigna increases, premiums on its point-of-service plan will rise to $1,022 a month for single members in the Los Angeles area beginning Jan. 1. Family point-of-service coverage would jump to $2,485 a month.
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles), a proponent of single-payer universal coverage, said the entertainers' plight illustrates the vulnerability of consumers under the current "fragmented" system that is largely based on employment.
"Everyone is at risk now," she said.
The insurance industry executive responded that "competition remains robust." Spending $29,820 annual for just the premium is robust? What about copays, deductibles, coinsurance, and those services not covered? Most Americans feel safe about their own health insurance, but understand that the system is broken. A few more good screwings like this and we'll be on our way to fixing health care. But, don't count on that. Big business isn't stupid.
Look at gas prices. They go up, up, up, up into the atmosphere, then they drop down and all is forgiven. Forget that they are much higher than when the rise started. They can cause us as much pain as they like, knowing that if they pull back at the right point all will be forgotten and forgiven. Whew, I feel great now that I stopped hitting myself in the head with that hammer. I've forgotten all about my stomach ache.
There is only one answer to this, single-payer national health care.
NC Defend Health Care - fighting for Health Care as a Right and not a privilege. Sign up for our Yahoo activist list!!!
Find out about starting a local chapterof NC Defend Health Care, we have local chapters starting in the Triad, Raleigh, and possibly Charlotte and Asheville.
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Bidness
Keep 'em coming, Robert. I'm getting so much out of your posts.
How do we reach out to the business community and get them to push on this too. You know my position: companies should not be in the business of providing health insurance. If they would join the movement and push the need for a breakthrough it could really make a difference. We pull, they push, policy makers listen, policies change.
Is Verla's bill the right way to go? What other tactical options are in play?
Incremental steps.
There are some incremental steps going to be proposed.
* Beverly Perdue, among others, will proposed health care for all from birth to 18.
* DHHS will look to expand some of the crazy quilt pieces to include more people at the seams.
* Rep. Hugh Holliman might be introducing a Healthy North Carolina bill modeled on the Healthy New York bill.
* expand medicaid, pass a high risk pool bill, provide a state subsidy for people who pay the full premium on high risk or mediciad expansion, expand our safety net providers (free, rural, federally qualified clincs, etc).
* Verla Insko will be pushing the high-risk pool in this session.
All in all there are some good incremental plans. In some ways, incremental changes make it harder to fight for universal health care.
Verla's bill does something very unusual. It gives the citizens the ability to decide if health care is a right for all citizens, or whether it is a privilege to be allocated based on wealth. This is the same argument that won the day with primary education. Imagine our country if primary education were run like the health care system!
Once the bill gets out of committee, is debated and passed on the floor, then the people get to decide. If they decide in the affirmative, then the state will STILL have to work out the specifics of the plan.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Collaborative Effort
This time last year, a collaborative effort between the Moore County Chamber of Commerce, First Carolina Care (a subsidiary health insurance company of FirstHealth, the not-for-profit health care provider that serves many of the small counties in this area), the Moore County Health Department, and many individuals in the business community, was launched. It was called "Cover Moore". It was ingenious.
The project was launched in early fall of 2005, and the goal was to have 400 previously uninsured working Moore Countians signed up for the plan by a December deadline. If they reached that goal, they had been given permission by the NC Insurance Commission to give extremely low group rates to all participants in the plan. It would allow small businesses to receive large group rates.
First Health was behind it because, as the main health care provider to the area, they wind up serving most of the population in the area whether they have insurance or not. If they don't have insurance, of course they see them via expensive emergency services rather than in for maintenance/wellness visits. The Health Department was behind it for the same reasons. The Chamber and many employers were behind it because the group rates were incredibly low compared to "regular" rates.By the way, individuals could sign up as a group of "one" for this plan. So even self-employed individuals such as writers, actors, etc., would have been eligible to participate.
It was very attractive to me, not only for my own employees, but because our agency works with very low-income child care providers, who often don't have a source of health insurance. According to Charles Frock, CEO of FirstHealth,
Now for the sad part: while many already insured workers/companies (like mine) signed up for this program, less than the necessary 400 signed up, and Cover Moore did not come to fruition.
However, it is my understanding that FirstHealth and First Carolina Care still have the subsidy available for workers who are paid less than $10.00 per hour, and I know from discussions at various meetings in the county that this idea is not going to go away.
Even though the plan ultimately failed, there are successes to be counted from it. More children than ever are covered in Moore County; we credit this to the publicity that Health Check and Health Choice picked up during this initiative. It also put children's health care on the radar screen at the Chamber of Commerce - which is not usually a home for that. They wrote and received a grant to publicize Health Choice in public and private schools, child care settings, churches, and public libraries.
But perhaps the greatest success of this initiative of all is that health care is now on the agenda of Moore County's business community. It comes up at inter-agency council meetings. It comes up at Chamber functions. I think it will happen. Now that the business community sees that it hits them in the pocketbook, it will happen.
Thanks for the info.
I'm going to look into this. There are several places in the country where hospitals have realized they can put out a small expenditure up front to save costs in the long run. The hospitals in Denver paying for social workers and apartments for the homeless immediately comes to mind.
It's important to note that there are many North Carolinians that are eligible for Medicaid that are not covered. Education is important.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Robert
I'll be glad to get as much info as you need about this to you. Just let me know.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Ghandi
Hey. What happened?
Didn't the calls for capping jury awards in civil suits claim that capping awards would stop/slow insurance increases?
What's that ... ? Oh, they weren't talking about MY insurance costs? They were actually talking about my doctor's insurance company's costs? Ok, see ... that's not what you jokers sold us. You said we'ld see relief in our medical and insurance costs, too.
eh? I misunderstood? Ok. Well, what about your much praised market-forces and the saving graces of trickle down? Where the hell is my trickle down, dude?
What? You were never about "trickle down?" >:-[ oh. I see. ... where's my frakin baseball bat ...?
Ok. Let me see if I've got the take home lesson in this story right: 1) Conservative pundits are plain stupid (or plain evil, you decide) because they swallow the economic theories of free-market economists without question; 2) One must always assume that a free-market economist who predicts a public benefit from a free-market-friendly law is just a sorry lying sack of shit. Is that about it?
Get on the bus
The "free-market" solution would be to eliminate public transportation so that you would never be hit by a bus. Although I have almost been crushed by a red double-decker bus at Piccadilly Circus the trigger for medical intervention and subsequent financial disaster can be as simple as bacteria from a foot bath or gym equipment.
A year ago I fell from a ladder fracturing two vertebrae and a shoulder blade. Luckily, the injuries did not require surgery but the bills were in the thousands of dollars. Luckily, I have health insurance that covered most but not all of the cost. I was always surprised by the reconciliation statements that showed the original billed cost reduced to an actual cost. It seems that the inflated original cost gets billed to people who can not afford it at a time when they are least able to pay it.
Misfortunes of genetics or circumstances should not provide any justificational for financial slavery of individuals. (This is completely separate from any argument about whether people are responsible for their condition or whether treating one condition now spawns more complex conditions later in an extended life span).
Health insurance is not "health" insurance. It's "financial" insurance for when you have health problems requiring costly intervention. The costs of these interventions are affecting businesses, individuals and governments. We need a default solution that keeps enough people reasonably healthy and productive, at a reasonable cost, in order to provide for those whose medical struggles are more onerous and render them less capable of dealing with the associated financial burdens.